112 Birds I Have Kept. 



the tiny Waxbills in the saine cage; while in the aviary he 

 will oust them from their nests in sheer wantonness, and 

 appro]5riate the material to his own use, the whole edifice 

 sometimes, although there may be any amount of nesting 

 places, hay, fibre, etc., about the place. 



So ardent is the temperament of this bird, and so keen 

 his desire to keep house and rear a family, that, sooner than 

 remain in single-blessedness, he will form an alliance with 

 a lady twice his size, such as a Diamond Sparrow or a 

 Mannikin, and bring up a nest of mules. 



Take him for all in all, his pretty and diversified plumage, 

 his charming miniature trumpet-like note, sprightliness, and 

 the facility with which he adapts himself to his surroundings, 

 combine to make him one of the most desirable little birds 

 of my acquaintance, so that I can most cordially recommend 

 him to those who are about to make their maiden essay in 

 foreign bird keeping. 



With regard to the hardiness of these birds, I must say 

 that I have never attempted to keep them out of doors during 

 the winter; although I have little doubt that they would 

 successfully brave the severity of our climate during tlie cold 

 weather, providing they had a snug nest to sleep in at night, 

 and were supplied with a varied assortment of suitable food, 

 for I have habitually kept them in an unheated room all the 

 year round, where the water in the drinking pan was frozen 

 every morning during frost, and they did not seem to mind 

 it in the least, sleeping as they did in a snug husk, or a 

 nest of their own contrivance: and other connoisseurs have 

 kept them in a garden aviary during the severest weather, 

 and found that they throve admirably in such a situation: 

 though, of course, they did not produce as many young ones 

 there, as they would have done had their abode been main- 

 tained at an equable temperature during the entire year. It 

 is, however, unnatural, and consequently detrimental to the 

 birds themselves, to permit them to go on producing brood 



